Clooney praised for accomplished directorial debut

Preview by Jack Foley

GEORGE Clooney's directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, continues
to attract widespread acclaim, opening to positive reviews in America and
scooping a prestigious prize from the Las Vegas critics circle.

The film was awarded best picture at the fifth annual Las Vegas Film Critics
Society Awards, dubbed the Sierras, announced earlier this year.

Clooney both stars in and directs the film, which co-stars Sam Rockwell, Julia
Roberts and Drew Barrymore, and is based on the memoirs of game show producer,
Chuck Barris, who claims to have led a double life as a CIA assassin.

It was made with the help of Clooneys long-time friend and producing
partner, Steven Soderbergh, who has directed him in Out Of Sight, Oceans
Eleven and the upcoming Solaris.

The biggest winner at the Sierras, however, was Peter Jacksons second
Lord of the Rings film, The Two Towers,
which took four accolades, including one for the director.

Nicole Kidman was named best actress for her performance as author, Virginia
Woolf, in The Hours, while Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for his terrific
performance in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of
New York.

Critics in Washington, meanwhile, named Sam Mendes gangster drama, Road
to Perdition, as their best film, while last years best actor Oscar
winner, Denzel Washington, was named best director - along with Mendes and
Spike Jonze.

Returning to Clooney, however, the star has been riding high critically as
well. Confessions opened to largely glowing reviews with E! Online awarding
it an A- and declaring it to be snappy, sly and fun.

Hollywood Reporter hailed George Clooneys stealthily thought-provoking
and brashly entertaining rendering of Chuck Barris' book, while the
New York Daily News awarded it three out of four and declared that it was
perversely enjoyable.

The New York Post, meanwhile, awarded it three and a half out of four, and
said that it was hugely entertaining, while USA Today felt that
it was an oddly fascinating depiction of an architect of pop culture.

Variety declared that it is a powerful and creative film.

FilmCritic.com declared that its a fun ride that sustains itself
despite a rather thin premise, while TV Guide hailed it as tremendously
clever, even though it is ultimately pointless.

Not everyone was impressed, however, and the Los Angeles Times led the bad
notices by declaring it a most irritating film, while the New
York Times felt that it was too cold for its own good.

POSTED
EARLIER: CHARLIE Kaufman must surely be one of the most sought-after screenwriters
currently doing the rounds in Hollywood.

Having dazzled audiences with surreal work such as Being John Malkovich, the
scribe is now firmly back in the spotlight with his latest two works - the
critical favourite, Adaptation, and
the upcoming Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which marks the directorial
debut of a certain George Clooney.

Based upon the memoir of the same name, Confessions is a darkly comic biography
which chronicles the like of The Dating Game/Gong Show creator, Chuck Barris,
who claimed that he led a double life as an assassin for the CIA, during which
he killed more than 30 people - a claim that has never been proven one way
or the other.

Sam Rockwell stars as Barris, while the likes of Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts
and Rutger Hauer also contribute cameos, along with the director himself,
as a shadowy CIA contact.

But the film, which is due to open in America on December 31, has already
drawn considerable acclaim for the director and writer - given its challenging
and slightly surreal subject matter.

Clooney, himself, has often been quoted as saying that the Confessions screenplay
was the best in Hollywood and that he'd do anything to get it made - even
if it meant directing it.

So it is little wonder that the star of films such as Oceans
Eleven and Out Of Sight has decided to give it a go, under the aegis of
the film company he formed with long-time collaborator, Steven Soderbergh.
He has even enlisted the support of Barris himself in marketing the film,
although the author remains tight-lipped about his time as a killer, stating
only that his opinions are contained within his book.

Not that the mystery surrounding Barris life has harmed the film - rather,
it has helped to raise its profile and critics in America have largely been
impressed.

Variety, for instance, referred to it as a powerful and creative film,
while Hollywood Reporter referred to it as stealthily thought-provoking
and brashly entertaining.

Clooney, for his part, is delighted with the reaction, and remains level-headed
about his chances of career longevity. Talking to the BBC, he said that if
people look at the history of every career ever there are very
few Paul Newmans in the world that get to do this when they're in their seventies.

"The truth is they will take all the toys away at some point," he
added.

The actor is, no doubt, mindful of the fact that audiences stayed away from
his previous film, Solaris, while several
family members in the entertainment industry have suffered peaks and troughs
in their careers.

The movie opens in the UK on March 14, 2003.

US critical reaction continued

Although
many of the critics have yet to publish their reactions in America, notices
so far have been generally positive. Aside from Variety and Hollywood Reporter
(see above), the likes of Film Journal International have viewed it as a bold
and challenging debut, which boasts a terrific lead performance from Rockwell.

It wrote that the film is brilliantly stylised to suggest its time period
and the hero's questionable, if dangerous, state of mind and fever-dreamlike
recollections, and adds that Confessions never fails to entertain
and intrigue.

LA Weekly, meanwhile, felt that Rockwell delivers a performance admirable
in its hustling sweatiness, while EFilmcritic.com wrote that Clooney
has everything under control here, from the storytelling to the steady hand
of a director with an eye of confidence for the cinema.

The Hollywood Report Card said that Confessions is odd, but awesome!,
adding that George Clooney's directorial debut is simply spectacular.
This is one smashing film!

On a more negative note, Film Hobbit felt that it isnt as weird
as it ought to be, but Village Voice opined that the movie is,
finally, an enigma, not because of Barris's monstrous fibbing, but because
it resists being experienced as satire for the sake of its own satirical integrity.

Further reaction will follow after the film's US release...

PAST MAINSTREAM PREVIEWS: Click here
for a preview of Nicholson's About Schmidt...
Click here for details of Adaptation,
the Being John Malkovich follow-up...
Click here for details of Japanese horror
remake, The Ring...
Click here to find out about Ripley's
Game...
Click here to find out about the early buzz
surrounding X-Men 2....
Click here for a look at Hanks/DiCaprio/Spielberg
flick, Catch Me If You Can...
Click here to see whether Eminem took a critical
rap for his acting debut, 8 Mile...
Click here to find out about The
Rules of Attraction (or the death of romance)...
Click here for an early look at Quentin
Tarantino's Kill Bill...
Click here for a preview of Clooney's latest,
Solaris...
Click here for a Knockaround Guys
preview...
Click here for the Lord of the Rings:
Two Towers preview...
Click here to find out why The Four Feathers
failed to fly high...
Click here for the K-19 preview and the controversy
surrounding it...
Click here for Martin Scorsese's eagerly
anticipated epic, Gangs of New York...
Click here for S1m0ne, Pacino's blue-screen
beauty....
Charlie's Angels get all soapy for sequel. Click here...
The Matrix Reloaded, the hype begins now. Click here...